Scary Beauty Product Ingredients - Book Giveaway!

Trying to decipher an ingredients list or figure out which personal care products are safe can be overwhelming. But as the author of Healthy Beauty points out, “conventional cosmetics and personal-care products contain many frank and hidden carcinogens, making them the most important and still unrecognized class of avoidable carcinogen exposure for the overwhelming majority of consumers in major industrialized nations.” In his book, Samuel Epstein arms you with the knowledge to avoid those toxic ingredients and find safer products, including everything from toothpaste and deodorant to nail polish and anti-aging cream.

We are giving away a copy of Healthy Beauty: Your Guide to Ingredients to Avoid and Products You Can Trust by Samuel S. Epstein, MD with Randall Fitzgerald. Check out this excerpt and don’t forget to leave a comment for your chance to win the book!

Four Deadly but Avoidable Killers

The details in this book are a lot to remember, especially when they involve so many long, unfamiliar chemical names. But if you only avoid four ingredients or categories of ingredients described in this book, make it these four: talc, powdered titanium dioxide, sunscreens, and certain dark hair dyes.

Talc, or talcum powder, has been strongly linked to ovarian cancer, which has become the fourth most common fatal cancer in women (after breast, colon, and lung). Yet one out of five premenopausal women continues to use it as a dusting powder or on tampons.

Titanium dioxide powder, which often appears as a whitening agent in women’s cosmetics powders, has been shown in rodent testing to be a source of respiratory tract cancer if inhaled. Numerous studies have demonstrated this effect, yet its use remains widespread, even in products otherwise billing themselves as safe and natural.

Sunscreens, either alone or used in cosmetics or lotions, give users an illusion of safety that encourages them to stay out in the sun longer, exposing them to greater amounts of dangerous long-wave ultraviolet radiation. Sunscreens also contain chemicals linked in laboratory experiments to hormone disruption.

Hair dyes, specifically black and dark brown permanent and semi-permanent dyes, contain many frank and hidden carcinogens. Frequent and prolonged use of these dyes has been linked to leukemia, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and bladder and breast cancers. While the European Union has banned many hair dye ingredients, United States manufacturers and regulatory agencies remain stubbornly blind to the dangers.

Excerpted from Healthy Beauty: Your Guide to Ingredients to Avoid and Products You Can Trust by Samuel S. Epstein, MD with Randall Fitzgerald. Published by BenBella Books, Inc.

WIN THE BOOK! Leave a comment below for your chance to win a copy of Healthy Beauty. Winner will be announced April 5. Good luck!

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Lisa P.

Please email Samantha at samanthas@care2team.com to claim your new book. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Joan M.

11:12AM PST on Jan 16, 2012

Maybe we should go back to the good old days of soap and water

send a green star

Nancy P.

10:10PM PST on Jan 15, 2012

It just seems that it would be so much easier for companies to make natural produts with few ingredients than a product with a bunch of chemicals. If I can't pronounce the ingredient, I don't buy the product.

Michele W.

9:39AM PST on Jan 15, 2012

Good information.
Thank you for sharing.

Wong D.

3:50AM PST on Jan 13, 2012

A very informative book to alert consumers on the types of harmful ingredients contained in the products. You could make wise decisions before buying.

Ala M.

3:39AM PST on Jan 13, 2012

It doesn't matter where the creams and beauty products are made. They all contain harmful chemicals. I bought a body cream from L'Occitane France which says rich in Shea Butter. When I read the ingredients this cream contains more harmful chemicals than shea butter.
Now I am looking for natural shea butter which is good for your skin. Before I buy any cream I read the labels. When you read the ingredients you be surprised how many chemicals are used which are harmful to your eyes.

Rosie G.

7:57PM PDT on Jun 12, 2011

IVE BEEN SUFFERING WIT ACNE ON MY NOSE FOR THE LONGEST TIME I WOULD APPRECIATE BEGINING ABLE TO WITHHOLD THIS BOOK

Jocelyn S.

7:20AM PDT on Jun 10, 2011

This book sounds great! I would LOVE to read it! I always cared what I put in my body but it wasn't until recently I started realizing how important WHAT I put on my body is also! There are so many products out there that claim to be Natural and Organic but only contain 1 of these ingredients! My current favorite 'good for you' brands are Dr. Brunner's Soaps & Carol Alt's Skin CAre line-- both affordable and trustworthy!

Eternal G.

6:25PM PDT on May 11, 2011

Ta!

David Erik B.

4:40AM PDT on May 4, 2011

Yes, I hope enough of the good.

DobieMax W.

7:44AM PDT on Apr 29, 2011

Noted.